But in Sunday’s match Rooney started in a withdrawn role and dropped deeper in the second half following the introduction of Dele Alli.
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Rooney was deployed in midfield in Sunday’s World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia with Allardyce admitting his skipper had dropped deeper than anticipated as England searched for their last-gasp victor. I played in that role and helped us win the game.
Since becoming England manager, a few key players feel Sam Allardyce has galvanised the squad.
“Are there better midfield players man-for-man in his position?”
“I said last week that maybe it is time for Rooney to give up on global football for his own good, to concentrate on his club career”.
Sam Allardyce has already made some big calls to make as his prepares to take charge of his first England game on Sunday, with Wayne Rooney and Dele Alli high up his list of tactical decisions.
“Too much is getting made about it”, he told Sky Sports.
Alli is under no illusion that he still has room for improvement in his game, especially with his discipline which let him down on more than one occasion last season and saw him miss the final three games of the campaign after punching West Brom’s Claudio Yacob in the stomach.
“Everyone likes a bit of competition”, he said.
Alli insists that he is happy to “play anywhere” for the Three Lions, supporters will want the confident 20-year-old to have the freedom to express himself in the coming years given that the national team have so often frozen with fear on the big stage. “But I have learned from that”, he said.
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“So I have been working on it and I know I need to keep it under control”. There were definitely a lot of things that I’ve learnt from last season.
